By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
The Dolls and Gents Drill and Dance Team, widely recognized as the largest community drill team in Washington state and a longtime highlight of regional parades, has publicly confirmed that it will not participate in this year’s Seafair Torchlight Parade or any other Seafair-sanctioned events. Despite Seafair’s continued use of the team’s image in promotional materials, the organization says its decision stems from being unexpectedly removed from last year’s parade—an exclusion Seafair attributed to public safety concerns.
Team leaders say those concerns centered around alleged threats of youth and gun violence targeting the group—allegations the Dolls and Gents firmly dispute. The experience has prompted the organization to reassess where and how it performs, prioritizing environments that they believe truly welcome and support their mission.
“From the decision made by Seafair last year to remove us from the parade, we decided to pivot and give our kids exposure to other communities,” said Jameelah Cage, co-founder and executive director of the Dolls and Gents. “We just didn’t want to march in a parade where we really didn’t feel welcomed.”
“The kids struggle so much because the statement that Seafair put out last year said the Dolls and Gents’ organization did nothing wrong. We just can’t have them in our parade, and that is so contradicting,” she added.
Makessa Jackson, co-founder and executive director of the Dolls and Gents, said that this was not the first negative interaction that the organization has had with Seafair, and that the experience made her deeply reflect on the team’s purpose and what they aim to provide for the members of the team.
“This year, it is purpose over popularity,” said Jackson. “So, what is our purpose, because we are already popular? Our purpose is to go out into communities to perform and provide a positive environment for youth. We don’t need Seafair to do that.”
“So, we have sought outside of that popular choice and gone to all kinds of different communities,” added Jackson. “And all of the different communities have sent letters directly to us about how their community enjoyed having us, and they want to have us come back.”
According to Cage, Seafair did reach out to them earlier this year, but the Dolls and Gents declined the meeting.
“One thing I do want to make clear is that Seafair did reach out through our communications person earlier this season, in January or so, asking us to meet with them,” said Cage. “We just weren’t ready at the time, so we declined to meet. But we are not sure what the purpose of the meeting was.”
Despite the team’s sudden removal from last year’s parade, Seafair used an image of the team to promote the parade—a notion that the organizers for the Dolls and Gents felt was insensitive and disrespectful. Fast forward to this year, and Seafair has once again used the image of the drill team for promotional purposes. In response, the Dolls and Gents put out a statement on social media labeling the promotional image as “false advertisement.”
“So, we can’t be a part of the parade, but you still want to use us to promote it?” questioned Cage. “I don’t get it. I know we did sign waivers to use our photos, but if this ‘gang organization,’ this horrible organization, can’t be in your parade, why use our pictures? It is just weird to me.”
Jackson shared similar feelings.
“Jameelah and I were raised in the city, and we have very good reputations here. So, to have someone say that we’re gang affiliated and then use our picture is like a slap in the face,” said Jackson. “For 19 seasons, they used our picture consistently, and that’s because we draw a crowd and have a huge following, and I personally think that is what they were thinking. It made it look like we were going [to be in the parade], and that’s why our statement was put out.”
Additionally, Jackson believes that continued use of their team’s image by Seafair sends the wrong message to the members of the teams that are actually participating in this year’s parade.
“What does that say to all the other teams? You removed us because you claimed we were gang affiliated, but you are continuing to use our image when there are several other drill teams in the parade and you are not using any of their images,” said Jackson. “Stand for something or fall for anything, and if you’re wrong, you’re wrong, and that was wrong. They shouldn’t have used us; we didn’t apply to be in the parade.”
According to Jackson, the Dolls and Gents will not participate in any Seafair-sanctioned events until further notice.
“I always say never say never, but at this point it is a no. It is a deep-rooted issue that would need to be taken care of before we could even think about going back in that direction,” Jackson said. “I think that there just has been so much disrespect, and different incidents where they have not come directly to us but made decisions for us, so we don’t know.”
“We are not telling anybody not to go to the Torchlight Parade; it is totally their choice whether they want to go or not. We just won’t be there,” concluded Jackson.
Editor’s Note: The Seattle Medium did reach out to Seafair for comment but had not heard back from them prior to publishing this article.
